New Delhi: A new report suggests that social media has an overall positive impact on Gen Z in India. The study by Snapchat was released on the 20th anniversary of Safer Internet Day (SID), wherein India registered the highest DWBI by country at 68. DWBI stands for Digital Well-Being Index, which is a measure of Gen Z’s online psychological well-being.

The DWB Index was created based on an online survey of 9,000 respondents consisting of Gen Z teens (aged 13-17), Gen Z adults (aged 18-24), and parents of 13-19 year-olds from 6 countries – Australia, France, Germany, India, the UK, and the US.

India saw the highest DWBI among males and females with a count of 67. This was split into: parents at 69, Gen Z at 64, and teens at 70. 88% of Gen Zs in India also said that social media has a positive influence on them.

The DWBI for the 6 countries stands at 62, which Snap says is a “somewhat average” reading on a scale of 0 to 100 – “neither particularly favourable nor especially worrisome.” Country-wise rankings saw India at the top with a DWBI of 68, the US scoring 64, Australia with 63, the UK with 62, and France and Germany coming in below the six-country average at 60.

Over three-quarters of Gen-Z said that social media had a positive influence on the quality of their lives. This belief was stronger among teens (84%) and males (81%) compared to Gen Z young adults (71%) and females (75%). Parents’ opinions (73%) about social media closely matched that of Gen Z adults.

DWBI uses the PERNA model, which is a variation of an existing well-being theory comprising 20 sentiment statements across 5 categories: Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Negative Emotion, and Achievement. Respondents were asked to state their level of agreement with 20 statements. Respondents were asked to state their level of agreement with 20 statements. For example, under the Engagement category, one statement is “Got completely absorbed with what I was doing online.”

Agencies

KR Desk